702 research outputs found
Sort by
L’Europa tra l’ordoliberalismo tedesco, Hayek, Schumpeter e Keynes. L’attualità degli anni ’30 nel dibattito contemporaneo su moneta, credito, crisi e austerità.
Full text linkThe research starts from the interpretation of the causes of the debt crisis in the Eurozone formulated by the more rigidly orthodox German economic and political circles, in order to highlight the actuality and importance of elements of theory and economic policy elaborated in the interwar period, both before and after the publication of Keynes’s General Theory.
With regard to economic policy, the research shows that, despite the common adhesion to the theoretical model that emerged following the monetarist counter-revolution of the 1970s, compared to the more pragmatic policies adopted In the United States, after 2009 the rigidity of the European response to the crisis originated by the collapse of the subprime mortgage market is explained by a specific paradigm reflecting a neoliberal conception of the role of the State in economics developed in Germany between the late 1920s and early 1930s. This conception has laid the foundations of the social market economy, the formula that has marked the almost twenty-year period (1949-1966) of the German economic miracle. Today, it represents the basis of the economic constitution derived from the ordoliberal principles defined by the norms of the European treaties.
The financial crisis that began in 2007 in the United States represents the first truly global financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, but it did not lead to question the validity of the principle of the neutrality of money and finance. In fact, the interpretations developed by contemporary mainstream economists and by Austrian heterodox economists attribute the origins of the Great Recession and of the debt crisis in the Eurozone to exogenous causes, that is, to errors or omissions of public authorities that have distorted the functioning of the international capital markets. Starting from the fundamental importance ascribed by Schumpeter to the role played by bank money in capitalist economies, with regard to economic theory, the research is therefore directed to the development of an alternative paradigm to that based on Say’s Law and on the irrelevance and instability of the monetary economy of production described by Keynes, an economy in which economic crisis can be produced endogenously by both “enterprise” and “speculation”
Physical and chemical aspects of the interaction of molecules with external surface and structural cavities of nanomaterials.
Full text linkThe research work carried out during this PhD project has been aimed to the investigation of molecular surface events relevant for the catalytic formation, in mild conditions, of amide/peptide bonds from non-activated reagents adsorbed on nanomaterials. The formation of C-N bonds is among the topics of high interest in modern research in chemistry, addressing issues ranging from fine to prebiotic chemistry. The implementation of this project required the selection of both catalyst and reactants. As for the nanomaterials, the criteria of choice were simplicity, availability and low cost for possible future applications and, on the other hand, reasonable representativeness of minerals possibly present on the early Earth, and active as catalyst towards adsorbed organic molecules. On this basis the following nanoparticles of silica and titania are selected as well as a zeolite of the ZSM-10 type, with a MOZ framework. This latter material was intended as a porous host for future studies of the high pressure induced oligomerization of amino acids. This part of the work belongs to a very recent project, and then the work carried out in this respect in this PhD thesis is focused on the synthesis of zeolite particles with proper framework features. The choice of reactants was driven, on one hand, on the suitability to be studied in depth by both experimental methods and theoretical modelling, and on the other hand, by the possibility to adsorb them on surfaces of nanomaterials from the vapour phase, i.e. in highly controlled conditions. Thus, the simplest carboxylic acid, HCOOH was selected, as well as two simple primary amines (methylamine and 1-pentanamine). One of the surface reaction investigated was the oligomerization of amino acids on the nanomaterials and for this glycine, alanine, histidine, serine were selected because of the possibility to adsorb them on catalyst via a chemical vapour deposition method. In summary, in Chapter One, the study targeting the elucidation of the mechanism of the amide bond formation between non-activated carboxylic acids and amines at the surface of amorphous silica is reported. The results prepare the ground to address the occurrence of this reaction and of the oligomerization of amino acids (glycine and alanine) at the surface of α-quartz sub-micrometric particles (Chapter Two). The study of the C-N bond formation at the surface of titania nanoparticles is the object of Chapters Three to Five. In particular, Chapter Three is devoted to the investigation the structural requirements of sites expose at the surface of titania nanoparticles in order they can act as catalytic sites towards amino acid oligomerization. In Chapter Four, insights on basic aspects of the interaction of formic acid and methylamine with the 101 anatase titania surface are presented. The possibility to prepare Ser-His dipeptides starting from non-activated amino acids by using titania nanoparticle as catalyst and the possible hydrolytic activity of the obtained peptides is the object of Chapter Five. Finally, in Chapter Six, challenges, successes and problems still to be solved for and effective synthesis of large ZSM-10 particles, required for multitechniques investigations, including single crystal X-ray diffraction
Use of alternative protein sources to fishmeal in aquafeed formulations and their effects on gut microbiota of cultured fish.
No full textIn aquaculture research, one important aim of gut microbiota studies is to provide the scientific basis for developing effective strategies to manipulate gut microbial communities through the diet, thus promoting fish health and improving productivity.
Accordingly, the present PhD project evaluated the effects of different diets on fish growth performance, and gut microbiota composition. Three dietary trials were conducted, using three different alternative sources to fishmeal (poultry by-products, PBP, insect meal, IM, and autolysed yeast from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, AY) in two teleost species: rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), and gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata). In addition to testing each raw material, graded levels of these were also tested, to estimate the more adequate inclusion rate in fish diet. The products tested are not only a substitute of fishmeal per se (e.g. IM or PBP) but can also act as additives (AY) that may directly contribute in enhancing the fish immune system.
The Illumina MiSeq platform for high-throughput amplicon sequencing of 16S rRNA gene and QIIME pipeline were used to characterize the whole microbiome associated both, to feeds and fish intestine. Fish fed on experimental diets grew as well as fish fed on control diets. PBP, AY, and IM in the diet affected positively fish gut microbiota, increasing its richness and diversity and in particular, increasing the abundance of beneficial lactic acid- and butyrate-producing bacteria, which contribute to the global health of the host. The operational taxonomic units identified predominantly mapped to the phyla of Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes and Actinobacteria. PBP, AY, and IM thus proved to be a suitable protein source for use in aquafeeds
Serum miRNAs as biomarkers for early diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
No full textLung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Late diagnosis, attributable at least partly to the lack of non-invasive screening methods, contributes to its high mortality.
Recently, microRNAs (miRNAs) attracted the attention of scientists as possible lung cancer biomarkers since they are stable, retrievable and dysregulated in many types of cancers.
We performed a critical review of the literature and selected 8 miRNAs, 4 of which with high sensitivity/AUC and 4 with high specificity. These miRNAs compose a two-step screening: in the first step the high sensitivity miRNAs are measured (miR-223, miR-20a, miR-145, miR-448), whereas in the second step the high specificity miRNAs are measured (miR-210, miR-628-3p, miR-29c, miR-1244). We aimed to identify the two best performing miRNAs.
All analyzed miRNAs were expressed at significantly higher levels in NSCLC patients compared to controls. Among the high-sensitivity miRNAs, miR-223 performed best; among high-specificity miRNAs, miR-29c performed best.
We then analysed miR-223 and miR-29c to determine the best combination and cut-offs for early lung cancer diagnosis. We measured the levels of miR-223 and miR-29c in a Training set and tested combinations and cut-off values that allowed to obtain the best separation between patients and controls. We found that the formula “miR-223>500 copies/μl OR miR-29c>50 copies/μl” had the highest sensitivity (75%) and acceptable specificity (50%). The formula was then applied to a blind Validation set and we found that it had a very high sensitivity of 92.5%, despite a poor specificity of 37.5%. Our results suggest that our test holds great potential for screening of patients at risk for stage I-II NSCLC
Selection, cultivation and biochemical analysis of fungi with pharmacological properties.
Full text linkThe importance of medicinal mushrooms has rapidly increased in the last decades thanks to the numerous studies carried out on their beneficial properties and the isolation of bioactive compounds able to bring significant benefits to human health. Among the most studied are found in particular, the saprotrophic fungi Lentinula edodes and Pleurotus ostreatus, belonging to the phylum Basidiomycota. Their economic and commercial interest has rapidly grown thanks to new methods of cultivation on substrates made ad hoc that allow to obtain high yields and high-quality mushrooms. The main purpose of this PhD thesis is to characterize the shiitake and oyster strains collected by different world banks, both commercial and research, comparing their activities and evaluating their beneficial potentials to create high-potential food products for the market of Italian and international functional food. In order to achieve this goal, different properties were evaluated, and two cultivation methods were compared, one on a commercial substrate based on sawdust and straw and the second on hardwood logs using a traditional method. This research project allows to select specific strains according to the type of activity considered, also evaluating production costs, yields and timing in order to create food products for the functional food market
Beta-blockers in oncology setting: paving the way for lung cancer
No full textWith the growing amount of studies revealing the involvement of β-adrenoceptors (β-AR) in the progression of multiple types of tumours, the hypothesis that β-blockers could be potential candidates for drug repurposing in oncology setting has gaining momentum. In lung cancer, it could be particularly meaningful considering the disappointing results of the current therapeutic approaches.
The compilation of studies disclosed in this thesis intended to investigate the presence β-AR in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) as well as discuss the potential for repurposing β-blockers as a new therapeutic approach for lung cancer. The studies included in this thesis comprise a narrative review, a clinicopathologic study, an in vitro study, and a meta-analysis exploring the effect of β-blockers on overall survival of lung cancer patients and a letter to the editor.
The obtained results suggest that β01 and β2-AR are differently expressed in the histologic subtypes, adenocarcinoma (ADC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). We found that β1-AR expression is present at low levels in both SCC and ADC whereas β2-AR is higher expressed on both histologic subtypes but clearly higher expressed in ADC. The meta-analysis performed, including 7448 patients, showed that lung cancer patients using β-blockers had no increased overall survival when compared to non-users.
Altogether, this work increased the knowledge on the expression pattern of β-AR on NSCLC. Despite the lack of a positive effect of β-blockers on lung cancer overall survival obtained in the meta-analysis, this study should prompt the attention of the scientific community to the fact that there is still a huge margin for improving the concept of β-blockers repurposing in cancer
Spectral analysis and fast methods for structured matrix sequences and PDE discretizations.
No full textWhen simulating phenomena in physics, engineering, or applied sciences, often one has to deal with functional equations that do not admit an analytical solution. Describing these real situations is, however, possible, resorting to one of its numerical approximations and treating the resulting mathematical representation. This thesis is placed in this context: Indeed the purpose is that of furnishing several useful tools to deal with some computational problems, stemming from discretization techniques. In most of the cases the numerical methods we analyse are the classical Qp Lagrangian FEM and the more recent Galerkin B-spline Isogeometric Analysis (IgA) approximation and Staggered Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods. As our model PDE, we consider classical second-order elliptic differential equations and the Incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. In all these situations the resulting matrix sequences {An}n possess a structure, namely they belong to the class of Toeplitz matrix sequences or to the more general class of Generalized Locally Toeplitz (GLT) matrix sequences, in the most general block k-level case. Consequently, the spectral analysis of the coefficient matrices plays a crucial role for an efficient and fast resolution. Indeed the convergence properties of iterative methods proposed, like multigrid or preconditioned Krylov techniques, are strictly related to the notion of symbol of the coefficient matrix sequence. In our setting the symbol is a function which asymptotically provides a reasonable approximation of the eigenvalues [singular values] of An by its evaluations of an uniform grid on its domain. These reasons, and many others, make the research of more and more efficient eigensolvers relevant and topical. In this direction, the second goal of this thesis is to provide new tools for computing the spectrum of preconditioned banded symmetric Toeplitz matrices, Toeplitz-like matrices, n-1K[p]n , nM[p]n , n-2L[p]n , coming from the B-spline IgA approximation of –u” = u, plus its multivariate counterpart for -u = u, and block and preconditioned block banded symmetric Toeplitz matrices. For all the above cases we propose new algorithms based on the classical concept of symbol, but with an innovative view on the errors of the approximation of eigenvalues by the uniform sampling of the symbol. The algorithms devised are special interpolation-extrapolation procedures performed with a high level of accuracy and only at the cost of computing of the eigenvalues of a moderate number of small sized matrices
La comunicazione politica sui beni comuni: il caso della campagna referendaria sull'acqua pubblica del 2011. Un'analisi linguistico-semiotica.
Full text linkPolitics, according to common opinion, would impoverish the language, depriving words of their semantic potentialities. But common opinion could be flawed by a prejudice and by an excess of pessimism. In fact, language is a dynamic system. My linguistic and semiotic analysis of the campaign advertising of 12 and 13 june 2011 referendum represents an interesting research about quality of used language and the level of representativity of campaign literature. Political language swings among commercial, bureaucratic and the common needs language. The research lasted two years, divided into three times: comparison with scientific literature, collection of a representative sample and analysis of materials
Peripheral immunity in Parkinson’s disease
No full textParkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder among elderly population and it is characterized by the progressive degeneration of dopaminergic (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra, presence of α-synuclein rich intraneuronal inclusions (Lewy bodies), and microglial activation. To date, exact cause remains unknown and the mechanism of neurons death uncertain.
It is typically considered as a disease of central nervous system. Nevertheless, numerous evidences testify undoubtedly about the principal role of neuroinflammation in progression of PD. Neuroinflammation is mainly associated with presence of activated microglia in brain and elevated levels of cytokine levels in CNS. In addition, active participation of immune system has been noted, such as, elevated levels of cytokine levels in blood, the presence of auto antibodies, and the infiltration of T cell in CNS.
Emerging evidence suggests that CD4+ T lymphocytes contribute to neuroinflammation in PD. Since the mainstay of PD treatment is DA-substitution therapy and DA is an established transmitter connecting nervous and immune systems, we have examined the changes in the pool of different subtypes of CD4+ T lymphocytes in patients and in healthy subjects, with specific regard to dopaminergic receptor (DR) expression. In addition, several in vitro experiments were performed in order to establish potential changes in function of CD4+ T cells.
Obtained results regarding the complex phenotypic and functional profile of CD4+ T cell subsets in PD patients strengthen the evidence that peripheral adaptive immunity is involved in PD and represents a target for the preclinical and clinical assessment of novel immunomodulating therapeutics
Distanza tra docenti e studenti nella percezione dello studio della fisica: valutazione e proposte di didattica laboratoriale.
No full textPhysics teachers need to take into account that students’ approach Physics is often very different from theirs. This is why teachers should be involved in an effort to transform their teaching method from traditional transmissive lectures to more interactive activities, in which students can learn not only the notions but also the correct method to approach physics and look at the reality.
Two are the leading ideas: first, students have their own background knowledge of reality, which, in many cases, is wrong from the point of view of scientist and teachers. It is important that these ideas come to light. Second, starting from students’ ideas, teachers should build a correct physical knowledge made at the same time of awareness and skills.
The Thesis work is made of two parts. The first concerns a study about the perception and
attitudes of students towards Physics performed by means of a questionnaire based on the CLASS (Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey) questionnaire developed by the Physics Education Research group of the University of Colorado, translated and slightly adapted for Italy.
The second addresses the design and development of three different experimental laboratories for high school students, two concerning optics (“Dismantle rainbow” and “Holography”) and one related to fluids (“Physics under water, fluid pressure and Boyle's law”) for the PLS (Scientific Degree Plan) of the Physics Department of the University of Insubria